Mark Redwine said he is haunted by the perplexing disappearance of his 13-year-old son Dylan during a Thanksgiving visit in November 2012.

There are so many possibilities, and all of them seem a little far-fetched, but because something odd did happen, one of those unlikely explanations has to be right. The boy who he never argued with didn’t just vanish into thin air.

He ponders so many different scenarios: Dylan is picked up while he is hitchhiking by someone he trusted, only to be kidnapped; Dylan goes fishing and a bear attacks and kills him; someone breaks into his home and snatches his son; Dylan is distraught because of his parents’ breakup and wanders into the forest.

“What is out of the realm of possibility is that I would do anything to my son,” Mark Redwine said in lengthy interview Friday, during which he offered rambling explanations about his own version of what became of Dylan.

On Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012, Dylan took a 300-mile airplane flight from his home in Colorado Springs to Durango to visit his father.

The eighth grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School lived in Colorado Springs with his mother Elaine Redwine and older brother Cory.

When Dylan arrived at the airport his father picked him up. The boy texted his mother at 7:06 p.m., telling her that he had arrived safely and that he and his dad were going out to dinner.

His dad took him to a McDonald’s for dinner and to Wal-Mart to buy some things.

On the 45-minute drive north to his home, Dylan asked his dad whether he could go to the home of his friends for a visit. Up until four months earlier, Dylan, his brother and his mom had been living in nearby Bayfield.

The Redwines had moved from Denver to Bayfield in 2004 when Elaine took a job at Fort Lewis College, according to the Durango Herald.

When the couple divorced three years later, Elaine Redwine and the boys continued to live in Bayfield and Mark Redwine stayed in the house near Vallecito Reservoir. Elaine moved to Colorado Springs in July 2012 when she took a job at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

The Thanksgiving visit was mandated by court order. His parents had been involved in a contentious divorce for more than half of Dylan’s life.

When father and son arrived at Mark’s house, Dylan texted his friends up until 8 p.m. and made arrangements to see them the next morning. His friends said he was to meet them at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

That next morning, though, Dylan was still under his blankets, asleep on the couch, Mark Redwine would later explain. Mark Redwine had errands to run in town. He waited for his son to get up until 7:30 a.m. so that he could take Dylan to the home of a friend.

Mark Redwine said he tried to roust his son. But when he didn’t wake, Mark Redwine drove to town alone.

“He was very much alive,” he said.

Mark Redwine visited his divorce lawyer.

When he returned home at 11:30 a.m., there was a dirty cereal bowl beside the sink. The television was on Nickelodeon and his son’s fishing pole was gone. So was his black-and-gray backpack. A few articles of clothing were left behind on the couch.

Dylan Redwine was gone.

“I didn’t worry about it because I knew he wanted to spend time with his friends,” Mark Redwine said in an interview Friday.

Mark RedwinePhoto by Denver Post reporter Nancy Lofholm

Mark told Denver Post staff writer Nancy Lofholm that he had tried texting Dylan all afternoon in an area with spotty cellphone service. When he didn’t hear anything back by late afternoon, he went to Dylan’s friend’s house in Vallecito. That friend hadn’t seen him.

Mark became alarmed and drove the 20 miles to Bayfield. Dylan’s friends there hadn’t seen him either. Mark called Elaine Redwine and went to the Bayfield Marshal’s Office.

A search began almost immediately for the boy described as being 5-feet tall and weighing 105 pounds. Deputies told searchers that the boy has blond hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. He was last seen wearing a blue-and-white Duke Blue Devils baseball cap, black Nike T-shirt and black Jordan tennis shoes.

Mark Redwine was is haunted by the possibilities, he told Lofholm.

Did his son Dylan grow impatient that day, Nov. 19, 2012, while waiting for him to come back home from a run to town for errands?

Did he hitchhike to visit friends? Had he climbed into the car of the wrong type of person? His son’s friends told Mark Redwine that he would occasionally hitchhike to get places.

Did he hike over a mountain and hurt himself on the way?

One possibility that he wouldn’t consider is that his son ran away from home. He was too happy.

His eyes reddened as he spoke with Lofholm.

“I just want my son back. I know it’s crossing all our minds — reality is starting to set in that that may not be a possibility.”

Searches for Dylan began that same evening. La Plata County sheriff’s deputies checked vacant cabins and knocked on the doors of homes tucked into the tall pines.

Mark Redwine couldn’t eat or sleep, he told a reporter.

Several possible sightings of Dylan were reported early on, but those were later discounted.

For example, on that Tuesday, two rescue workers said that they thought they may have seen Dylan twice but that both times he fled into the forest. Authorities later found a jogger they believe had been mistaken for Dylan.

That Saturday a massive search involving a helicopter, K9s and 200 volunteers scoured miles of forest near Lake Vallecito for Dylan. People also went door to door looking asking neighbors if they had seen the boy.

“Dylan is a generational kid and tech savvy,” his mother Elaine Redwine told a Durango Herald reporter. “He wouldn’t have gone off to the mountains to pitch a tent or build a fire.”

She was certain that someone took him against his will. Her 21-year-old son Cory and her significant other Mike Hall joined the search. They climbed on a ridge above Vallecito Reservoir, looking for any sign of Dylan, the newspaper reported.

“I feel so helpless,” Elaine Redwine told reporter Dale Rodebaugh. “But I don’t want to leave without him. I want him home and safe.”

The next day, a Sunday, the FBI joined the search and a dive team from the New Mexico State Police, searched for a body near the Vallecito dam after K-9 dogs picked up a scent near the reservoir. A week after Dylan’s disappearance was reported, three boats equipped with sonar search the reservoir in a grid pattern.

An unidentified La Plata Search and Rescue member operates a boat on Vallecito Lake on Sunday morning during the search for Dylan Redwine. Rae Dreves, center, is the handler of Sayla, a 6-year-old German shepherd, who is one of the K-9 unit dogs helping in the search. Photo courtesy of La Plata County Sheriff’s Office

“We had two of the dogs alerted on the surface of the lake. It could be a submerged deer or elk or something else,” La Plata County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dan Bender told Denver Post reporter Tom McGhee.

In an interview McGhee had with Mark Redwine the father expressed misgivings about the investigation.

“I question why it has taken this long to start scouring the lake because from Day One they have known it is likely he had a fishing pole with him,” Redwine, then 52, said.

He said because he may have been hitchhiking, Dylan may not be anywhere near the reservoir.

“It sounds to me like he’s not even in the area,” he said.

He said he is concerned that a stranger could have picked up his son in his car and abducted him.

Mark Redwine told the reporter that his son is the type of kid who would go into the wild to fish or hike.

“I would describe him as being an athletic type of kid who loves being outdoors.”

His comments conflicted with what Dylan’s mother had said about her son.

On Monday, the story went national. A radio reporter from ABC News interviewed Elaine Redwine. During the interview she breached the possibility that Mark Redwine, her former husband, was lying about what had happened to their son.

“If Dylan did or said something that wasn’t what Mark wanted to hear, I’m just afraid Mark would have reacted,” Elaine Redwine said.

By Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, a task force is formed. Twenty law enforcement officers from the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and Durango Police Department coordinated another door-to-door search of every home near Vallecito Reservoir and Bayfield.

That night at 6 p.m., about 150 residents of Vallecito lit candles in a vigil.

The dragnet by local, state and federal agents continued through Wednesday, when authorities said they do not believe Dylan had run away. The same day three K-9 units searched areas near Vallecito Reservoir. That night the story was featured on the Nancy Grace show on CNN.

Sgt. Dan Bender of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department told a reporter that detectives were investigating whether Dylan was the victim of an “abduction, kidnapping or some kind of foul play.”

“We hope that he is still alive. There have been plenty of cases where someone has been abducted or kidnapped and is still alive,” Bender said.

The following day, a Thursday, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Mark Redwine’s home.

By the time Lofholm went to Mark Redwine’s home on Dec. 2, 2012, the search was well in progress.

Missing persons flyers with the 13-year-old’s picture were affixed to road signs, pinned to bulletin boards, stuck in car windows, flashing on digital sign boards and displayed on businesses’ entrance doors — sometimes two or three at a time, just in case someone might miss one.

Locals were posting messages on a newly created, “Save Missing Dylan Redwine” Facebook page. People were handing out royal-blue ribbons with a phone number of a special tip line.

Investigators visited the nine registered sex offenders who lived in Vallecito and Bayfield. One team of searchers checked up on a growing list of tips. Another team combed through videos and photographs taken along the road from Vallecito to Durango on the day Dylan went missing.

Investigators were not calling Mark Redwine a suspect. He also voluntarily sat down and was interviewed by investigators.

“We went through everything moment by moment,” Mark Redwine said.

He knew that some people thought he was responsible for his son’s disappearance. He contacted a defense attorney. He was helping in the search in any way he can, he told Lofholm.

Lofholm’s story appeared in the Denver Post on Dec. 3, 2012. That night, Nancy Grace featured another story about the missing person case. She promised new revelations:

“Bombshell tonight. We learn no one hears from Dylan, an avid texter, since shortly after he touches down at Daddy’s. Tonight, where is 13-year-old Dylan Redwine?

The TV show indicated that the last time the tech-savvy boy texted his friend was 8 p.m. on Nov. 18, 2012, shortly after he and his father arrived at his house.

She cuts to local radio station reporter Jon Denny, who explains that authorities took Mark Redwine’s two pickup trucks. Investigators had also taken other items from his home.

Nancy Grace interview’s Dylan’s mother Elaine.

GRACE: Ms. Redwine, I’ve got to tell you, every time – there’s this one picture of your son that reminds me so much of my little boy, John David, with the blond hair and the big crystal blue eyes.

I want to go back to something you just said. He was excited to go see his friends. He had a lot of friends there. What was his relationship with his dad? I know you guys have had a very tumultuous relationship. The divorce, the custody, all that has to take a toll. Did they get along?

REDWINE: Yes. I mean, I just don’t think – you know, we had joint parenting time. And because, you know, Mark had to earn a living and we live in a small community, he was on the road a lot. So he didn’t spend a lot of time with Dylan in the three years prior to Dylan moving to Colorado Springs. So I just don’t think he knew Dylan all that well…

GRACE: …Now, Ms. Redwine, was — did there come a time when you learned that Dylan was missing? How did that happen?

REDWINE: Well, his dad texted me at around, oh, 4:30. Maybe it was closer to 5:00 on Monday. And I texted him back. You know, it was like, Well, we should call the sheriff. So I went ahead and I actually called the sheriff that day. I don’t know if Mark had called the sheriff that day, either, but I called the sheriff right after I got the text from Mark.

A week later someone claiming to be Abass Gaddfi created a Facebook page on which he wrote that he had kidnapped Dylan and was holding him captive. He demanded $1,000 for pictures of Dylan and another $4,000 for his return. It was a scam.

Friends of the Redwines started a fundraiser to help defray costs of the search in early December, 2012. Blue, rubber bracelets saying “Find Dylan Redwine” were sold for $5 each.

A benefit dinner with a silent auction raised $14,000, an anonymous donor contributed $5,000 and crime stoppers was offering $1,000. The reward would swell to more than $50,000 in a month.

“Good morning my sweet Dylan. Christmas is over, and it was so empty without you. We are doing everything we can to find you or get to the person who is responsible for taking you. I am so angry at the person who ‘lost’ you. You should be able to trust that your parents will protect you and keep you safe. Just know that we will find you and keep you safe again as we have for many years. Don’t give up Dylan and stay strong.”

On the morning of Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, about 20 people stood in a rain-snow mix and cold temperatures above Vallecito Reservoir to call on Mark Redwine to be more active in the search for Dylan, according to a Herald article.

They help up signs including one that said, “Why do you hide,” and another read: “No walk! All talk! We all miss you Dylan.”

Mark Redwine was miffed by the vigil.

“I do a lot of things on my own,” Redwine told a Herald reporter. “Every time I get (back) into Durango, I talk to other truck drivers” to have them keep fliers in their rigs, he said.

The newspaper also quoted Cory Redwine as saying, “I think he has a part in this. I’m not sure exactly to what extent, but if your son’s really missing, most people would be doing anything they could to bring him home, not avoid the situation.”

Dylan’s first birthday since he went missing came on Feb. 6, 2013.

Mark and Elaine Redwine faced off with each other on the Dr. Phil (McGraw) show on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27 of 2013.

Mark Redwine said producers sold the show to him as a way to get the story of his son’s disappearance a national audience, hopefully to help solve the case.

“It was the biggest farce,” he said. “I was being attacked the moment I walked onto the stage.”

But fingerpointing was going both ways during the program.

Mark Redwine pointed a finger of accusation at his ex-wife, claiming that her attempts to keep Dylan from seeing him in the months before the boy’s disappearance were suspicious.

“Where is Dylan? You know where Dylan is Mark. You were the last one to see him,” Elaine Redwine yelled and her ex-husband. “You were the last one to have any contact with him. It was on your watch.”

It got nastier.

“I don’t like you. I hate you,” Cory Redwine told his father. “You have been nothing of a father for the last 10 years.”

The piling on continued when Mark Redwine’s first wife Betsy joined the fray.

Dr. Phil said Mark’s first wife Betsy had told him that Mark was abusive. Betsy said Mark threatened to take the kids from her several times and that there was an incident when Mark threw her on the ground and repeatedly punched her in the face.

“I believe that Mark could do something to harm Dylan because he has a violent temper and he snaps easily,” Besty said.

Mark Redwine denied the accusation.

“I never raised my hand to her and I never hit her with an open hand or a fist,” he said.

Dr. Phil took his turn:

“I don’t know what happened here. If you have your son stashed somewhere or, if God forbid, you flew into a rage and you hurt him accidentally and he’s dead, if something has happened, I will help you deal with it now and we will go recover that young man…If you’re not involved then there’s something seriously wrong with you because your reaction to this, something’s wrong.”

Initially, Mark Redwine accepted Dr. Phil’s offer to have an expert administer a polygraph test on him. But during the two-day taping of the show Dylan’s father declined to submit to the test on both days for reasons including that he drank a half a bottle of Jim Beam and was worried he wasn’t in a condition to take the test.

On May 17, 2013, Redwine released a statement criticizing how officials have carried out the search for his son:

“I am asking that we stop and evaluate the process as a community, to come up with a more productive approach in the search for Dylan and missing children across the country. No child who is missing should have to wait for certain criteria to be met before the public is notified and an alert be sent out.”

The statement appeared in the Herald.

Mark Redwine said no Amber Alert was issued the day his son went missing.

“I firmly believe that the most critical time was in the first day or two or three and that everything possible should have been done. I think that not enough was done in that time frame,” Mark Redwine told a Herald reporter.

On Saturday afternoon, June 22, 2013, 45 searchers fanned out along a 12-mile stretch of Middle Mountain Road north of Vallecito Reservoir from elevations of 8,000 to 11,000 feet in dense forests and deep canyons, according to news reports.

The search, which began after snows melted, went on for five days.

Five-day search begins in June, 2013

Over the course of several days, searchers found scattered items and bones. It wasn’t clear whether they were human or animal bones.

The bones were sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for examination. On Thursday, June 27, CBI authorities announced that they had found a match: the bones were Dylan’s remains.

Mark Redwine told a Denver Post reporter that he was “blindsided” by the news.

“I cannot wrap my head around it. You can never be prepared for something like this.”

In the interview Friday, he said that investigators later showed him pictures of a shredded shirt, a shoe and a sock. The bones were small pieces of a femur and a shoulder blade. Investigators were able to match the remains with DNA he and his ex-wife had voluntarily given to investigators through mouth swabs.

“I asked them to show me where (they found Dylan’s remains),” he said. They took him into the mountains. Items had been found along a 1 1/2-mile area.

Investigators said the cause of death was homicide, but they didn’t reveal the manner of death.

More than 100 family members, friends and neighbors held a candlelight vigil for Dylan two days later on Saturday night at Eagle Park in Bayfield.

“It’s sad to hear he’s no longer with us, but it’s better than not knowing, wondering every single second of every single day,” Cory Redwine told a Herald reporter. “It’s nice to have closure. We found Dylan. That doesn’t really mean all that much if we can’t find justice and bring peace for him.”

Dylan Redwine’s remains found north of Vellecito Reservoir

Following the discovery a Denver man created a Facebook page promoting the idea that Middle Mountain, where Dylan’s remains were found, should be renamed Dylan’s Mountain.

Following the discovery, Sgt. Bender told reporters that the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department had not yet identified a suspect.

Two months later on Aug. 14, investigators served yet another search warrant on Mark Redwine. Along with La Plata County deputies, FBI and CBI agents searched his home again.

They took a swath of dark carpet from his bedroom and took one of his doorjambs for testing.

On Feb. 5, they served him with a warrant to search his Chevy pickup truck, which didn’t make any sense to him because he had only driven his son around in his Dodge pickup truck.

They were looking for blood or DNA evidence, he said.

Redwine called the cross-country trucking company he works for later that month and asked for a leave of absence, he said.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 3, Mark Redwine called 9News TV reporter Melissa Blasius of Denver.

According to a 9News report, Mark Redwine told her that he had been driving around the state for two days and thought that detectives were surrounding him.

He explained that his deteriorating vision, coupled with mounting pressures related to his son’s death clouded his mind.

An ambulance took Mark Redwine to Denver Health Medical Center for a mental health evaluation. He says they released him 12 hours later because he obviously wasn’t a danger to himself or others.

Mark Redwine said his son Cory sent him a text message accusing him of trying to run away. He said he understands his sons angst and doesn’t hold it against him because of the circumstances.

What frustrates Mark Redwine the most now, he says, is his perception that law enforcement officers haven’t found enough evidence to prove what became of his son. He said his number one priority is finding his son’s remains in hope that they will find something definitive.

Dylan Redwine, 13(Provided by La Plata County Sheriff’s Office)

The coroner has no evidence that is sufficient to even prove how his son died: by a fall or foul play.

One theory that he believes hasn’t been adequately considered is his son’s state of mind.

He said that it would not have been impossible for him to climb into the rugged mountains north of his home on his own, because “he’s been up here for years. It’s not like he didn’t know the area.” Going in a northerly direction would take him away from his friends, who live east of his home, not towards them, he added.

“I don’t know why he would be on foot going up there,” Mark Redwine said.

“Over time, with his age, this whole situation with the divorce. His emotions – he could have been bottling things up. I can’t help thinking, looking back on things, that may have had an impact on him,” Redwine said.

When asked whether he is implying his son walked into the woods to commit suicide, he emphasized that he is not suggesting suicide, but that it is no more implausible than other potential causes including an encounter with a bear, for example.

“There is no clear path that anyone can say without any doubt that one theory explains what happened,” he said. “With a passage of time I don’t think anyone has handled this better than I have.”

“I’m not aware of any new developments,” Mark Redwine said.

He said he will join efforts to track the rest of his son’s bones in hopes that whatever they find will settle the mystery of what happened to Dylan.

Anyone with information that could help solve this case is asked to call the La Plata County Sheriff’s Department at 970-385-2900.